Rachael Lillis, the OG Voice Actress for Pokemon’s Misty and Jessie, Has Passed Away From Breast Cancer
This might be one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to write for this blog, but it needs to be done. This monday, it was publicly announced that Rachael Lillis, the legendary voice actress and original voice of Misty and Jessie, passed away on Saturday, August 10th. She was 46 years old.
A professional voice actress, people best knew Rachael for her time with the Pokémon franchise. When 4Kids started dubbing the anime in the West, Rachael was part of the original cast. For eight years, she provided the voice to both Misty, the water-type Pokémon trainer with a fiery temper, and Jessie, the lovable villainess of Team Rocket. She was also the voice behind multiple Pokemon, with Jigglypuff being the most notable. To the best of my knowledge, they still use archival recordings of her for Jigglypuff to this day.
Earlier this year, I had reported how Rachael had developed breast cancer that had since spread to other parts of her body, leaving her barely able to walk on her own. Several of her relatives and colleagues set up a GoFundMe to get the money to move her to a better facility, and many spread the word about it on social media. As hopeful as I wanted to be, I knew she wasn’t long for this world. But…I didn’t expect us to lose her this soon.
I don’t need to spend time explaining just how important Rachael, Misty, and Jessie were to me. Watching Pokemon was what got me into anime. I retroactively consider Misty to be my first anime waifu ever. Watching how she could go from being sweet and friendly with Ash and Brock to being ballistic was so much fun, and it made for a big part of the show’s appeal to me. As a 90s/2000s kid, losing her is like a massive gut punch. I’m barely able to keep myself from crying as I write this; it’s beyond devastating.
So sad. She was one of the funniest, sweetest, kindest people. My dear friend for so many years. Celebrate her life by watching OG Pokemon, especially Team Rocket, she will always be my partner in comedic crime. RIP my friend. pic.twitter.com/jTWaI0d8pG
We all know Rachael Lillis from the many wonderful roles she played. She filled our Saturday mornings and before/after school hours with her beautiful voice, her terrific comic timing, and her remarkable acting skills. #RachaelLillispic.twitter.com/XOjFqY0C1L
Fans and colleagues are mourning Rachael’s passing all across the Internet, and it is heartbreaking to read. She was one of those early pioneers of anime in the West, and while others went on to voice her characters, to me, she was the only Misty and Jessie that I needed.
With recent news of the passing Rachael Lillis, I must share my favorite voice acting moment from her.
The level or genuine emotion she put into Misty during this scene is just beautiful. pic.twitter.com/ImV7NAcBNn
With the announcement of Rachael Lillis’s tragic passing, this scene hits even harder now knowing that Misty’s original english voice is no longer with us…😭 pic.twitter.com/2Tq8IjOtpS
Hey, everyone. RJ Writing Ink here, writing on behalf of the D&A Anime Blog. Aaron and I aren’t in the best state of mind right now. You likely know this by now, but late March 7th, it was announced online that Akira Toriyama, the legendary creator of Dragon Ball and dozens of other works, had passed away more than a week ago. Aaron was the one who wound up telling me on Discord. And my reaction was one of shock and great sadness.
— DRAGON BALL OFFICIAL (@DB_official_en) March 8, 2024
Over the next few hours, I watched the Internet cry out sorrowfully, including Aaron and me. So many people, fans, content creators, and those whom Toriyama inspired to do what they love for a living, all mourning the loss of the legendary mangaka. As for me, at Aaron’s behest, I wrote a post for this blog breaking the news for ourselves. It didn’t feel right not to say anything about Toriyama, especially since Aaron told me it was why he and Donte started this blog. Afterward, I went to bed and tried to sleep as best I could. But as I drifted off to sleep, still trying to process the death of the great mangaka, a realization came to me. While I had seen plenty of people, both idols and loved ones, die before, there was a reason why Toriyama’s passing hit me and everyone so hard. And it was more than the fact that he died at only sixty-eight years old. Truthfully, even if he died twenty years old, it still would have felt too soon.
My reason was that the culture we know today might not have existed without Akira Toriyama and what he created.
Imagine what Akira Toriyama did when he created Dragon Ball forty years ago, like planting a tree in the middle of a field. He would then spend the next eleven years returning to it once a week to tend to it as it grew big and strong. Its trunk would start to reach for the heavens, its roots would burrow deep into the soil underneath, and its branches would become solid and sturdy. Eventually, it grew big enough to create seeds, and others would come and take them to grow their trees. Flash forward to the present day, and the original tree he planted will get big enough to tower in the skies, while the younger trees will grow just as big and potentially just as strong. If all goes well, then that field could become a forest generations down the line. But the man who planted the first tree would never live to see that. He would have to trust those who followed him to continue his work and make something unique out of it.
If you need clarification on this metaphor, then here’s the meaning. The tree itself is what Toriyama did throughout his entire career, with Dragon Ball primarily serving as the trunk. The branches represent everything that sprang forth from the popularity of the original manga: the anime, movies, video games, products, fan-made content, and all the people who found happiness, success, and more thanks to Dragon Ball. The roots are how the franchise has made its way into global culture. The younger trees represent the people who were inspired by reading Toriyama’s work to become mangaka themselves, giving us even more hit Shonen series like Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, Fairy Tail, and likely many more. When you put all of that together, the result should be clear. What Akira Toriyama managed to do was create something that managed to incorporate itself into human culture worldwide. Something that has come to unite people from all walks of life over their shared love of this man’s work. No matter how you look at it, that’s impressive.
Now imagine what life would be like if he had never made Dragon Ball or if it had never become as popular as it is. Suddenly, you might get a world where anime has never become more than a niche interest outside Japan. Where many of the series that you love reading never existed. The people whose lives Dragon Ball changed for the better never got that chance. Bonds that started thanks to that shared love never came about, people who never turned that love into their careers, and more. It would be like the alternate timeline from It’s a Wonderful Life, in which George Bailey was never born, and Toriyama is Bailey.
Toriyama’s Legacy Lives On
Rest in Power Akira Toriyama! Thank you for Goku!Thank you for everything! 🙏 Here's a rare Akira clip for those who would like to watch. pic.twitter.com/BMA3dBnmbu
Toriyama may be gone now, but his legacy lives on, and it’s more than just Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump, Dragon Quest, or whatever else he helped create. It’s the millions of people worldwide whose lives he changed, often for the better. The mangaka like Masashi Kishimoto and Eichiro Oda. The people who got to work on his series, both in Japan and abroad. The people who can make a living doing fanworks of Dragon Ball like TeamFourStar, DevilArtemis, Daitomodachi, and more. Even fans like me and Aaron. We’re all part of the legacy that Akira Toriyama left behind, and it’s mind-boggling when you put that into perspective. How many people throughout history can say they’ve affected so many people in such a positive manner? Not many.
Am I sad? Yes. I hate that Toriyama died so soon. But Dragon Ball can live on. If we want to do right by Toriyama, we need to ensure that people can continue to enjoy Dragon Ball for generations to come. I know that we’re all mourning for his passing, but no one is genuinely gone, so the world continues to remember him. And with the impact that Toriyama had on the world? I don’t think he’s going to be forgotten for a long, long time.
Hello, everyone, RJ Writing Ink here with a special announcement regarding a new series I will be doing. So, a few months ago, it was announced that Donte, co-founder of this blog, would be leaving to pursue his own projects, leaving Aaron as the head of the blog and myself as one of its writers. Before he left, Donte liked to write recommendations he was watching for everyone to check out. In the past, I have done some posts for anime that I have liked but didn’t have the time to review episode by episode, such as My Clueless First Friend, and The 100 Girlfriends. It’s a fun, easy, and time-saving way to get the word out about what’s airing that’s worth watching.
In the spirit of what Donte did, and with Aaron’s permission, I will be picking up where the former left off. I’ll be checking out anime that I feel are worth writing about but don’t have the time to review each episode. The first post to this series will be coming soon! Hope you enjoy, and thanks for your continued support of the blog!
Time. It’s the one thing we don’t get enough of, and the one thing we always wish we had more of. For many of us we feel like if we had more time to do the things we like, we would feel a greater sense of joy and less stress in our daily lives. However life can throw you a curveball when you least expect it, and now you have to make adjustments in the time you spend to those things you like to do. There’s one other thing about time that secretly scares many of us; it always moves forward. This post isn’t really about time, but its more like…its time to move on.
If you’ve noticed by the title, I indeed do have a Naruto episode reference that talks about the 220th episode of the first half of the series. That is the series finale where Naruto leaves the Hidden Leaf with Jiraiya for about 2 years and 6 months. Well…as for me and D&A, let’s just say I’m on that ‘Naruto 220 Type Beat’.
In 2016 Aaron and I made the decision to go on this crazy ride, to become one of the best anime blog/websites out there in the U.S. and the world. Our first anime convention was Animore in Baltimore, MD during its first year on January 11, 2016. From there we would go to various other conventions; such as Zenkaikon, Otakon (our original convention), SaikuCon, and Thy Geekdom Con. Just this year we made appearances at Stellar Con, PuchiCon, and Ocean City Comic Con. Around January 2020 we were receiving reports of the first few cases of coronavirus in the U.S., however it didn’t really start hitting close to home until March of that year. We spent the next two years with no in-person conventions, so we made a podcast on Youtube called “Nerdz of the Decade”, to help us keep our sanity while also nerding out about anime and video games.
It was also around this time that we wanted to take what we do seriously, and start a business. I’ll admit, at first I was a bit confused due to the fact that when we started this, we really didn’t have any intention of it going as far as it did. So adjustments were made and we backed away from the convention circuit until Fall 2023; when we made our return to cons through Stellar Con, PuchiCon, and Ocean City Comic Con. Even though a part of me was happy being back on the circuit…it didn’t really feel the same. Although I was among cosplayers and other anime fans, the ambiance was a little different. Maybe it could be with conventions marketing and targeting a younger demographic, old heads like myself have either stopped going to those “family-friendly” cons, or just went to some of the afterparties held offsite from some of the semi-major/major cons.
Maybe that’s where I’m at. Maybe its time to chill from the con circuit for awhile. Maybe its time to acknowledge that fact that I’m having a “Naruto 220” moment, and depart for a new chapter in my life as an anime nerd. If it means I gotta peace out from D&A, then that’s what I’ll have to do. I know last time was really a hiatus to get my head together, but this time is much different. Aaron and I are still friends, and he’ll always have my back no matter where I go or end up on this new chapter. The blog and business will still be here, it’ll just be under new management. For those who want to become contributors, you can still hit up our “Contact Us” page.
From the bottom of my heart, I thank each and every one of you guys for making this journey with D&A a fun one. Perhaps somewhere down the line we may cross paths again. I may be out the door, but make sure you support Aaron as he goes on his new venture in making D&A one of the best businesses out there. This is D.J. Lewis on his “Naruto 220” saying thank you, and stay nerdy!
Well, December starts tomorrow; meaning that there’s only 31 days of 2023 left. Here we are in between holidays once again like we were last year…and the many, many years before. Next week will be our last convention of 2023; Ocean City Comic-Con in Ocean City, Maryland, and we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to stack con appearances for 2024 while meeting a few con runners there. Lately we’ve been doing our best to remain transparent about our needs in regards to the future of D&A, and where we want to go from here as a nerd multimedia brand. Somewhere down the line we’ll be making D&A Studios Entertainment as our primary brand, and having D&A Anime Blog as well as our Nerdz of the Decade Youtube podcast, as subsidiaries. (Since BASSMODE: Nerdz Nite Out is an independent event promotion, that’s financially powered by D&A Studios Entertainment, it will not be considered as a subsidiary.)
We’re looking for new ways for this project to make revenue in order to keep operating, of course due to the after effects of the pandemic, its been a slow climb. We’re thankful that we got the opportunity to return to the con circuit after a three-year hiatus, however with where we are on the financial side of things, we’ve decided to stay local; in terms of the anime and gaming conventions that we make appearances at. You probably won’t see us at your Anime Expo’s or Galaxycon’s or any of the major cons right now (not say we won’t attend in the future), but if you live in DMV (D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania), then you’ll run into us at those cons.
If we haven’t said it before, we want to thank all of our fans and fellow anibloggers, for all of your support you’ve given us over the years since the start of this project. We’re hoping we can continue to grow our brand, and be the best version of ourselves in the process.
November is here if you haven’t already noticed, and with that comes two of the biggest holidays that involve food and money; Thanksgiving, and Christmas. During this final quarter of 2023, we had the opportunity to go to two conventions with a third on the way; Stellar Con in Bel Air, MD, and PuchiCon in Tannersville, PA. I’m just happy that after three years we’re finally back on the con circuit, although a lot has changed within the convention scene since our last convention in January of 2020. So with 2024 approaching, what will Aaron and I be doing with this project going forward?
Us at PuchiCon 2023
You guys should already be familiar with the story; we started back in January 2016 and made our convention debut at AniMore, then went to other cons in 2017 while meeting and chatting with voice actors, then spent the next three years building our brand and reputation in the anime community. Suddenly Covid hit and sidelined us for about 2 1/2 years, we created a podcast called “Nerdz of the Decade”, had voice actors and content creators on the show to build our rep even more, and finally returned to the con circuit this year.
With all of that said, what’s next for D&A? While I’m still cautiously optimistic about the future of this project, I’m still very much involved with D&A; despite the fact that I quit due to the outside stress of life, only to come back three months later. As far as what conventions we’ll be making appearances at, we’re most likely going to stay local and just attend the ones in Maryland and Pennsylvania. (Maybe New York and New Jersey, but we’ll see.) Although its still in its infancy as a brand, BASSMODE: Nerdz Nite Out is starting to pick up a little steam. If you don’t know what BASSMODE is, allow me to tell you.
BASSMODE: Nerdz Nite Out is a promotion that celebrates anime, cosplay, gaming, music, and nerd culture through ‘afterparty’ social events. I am both the founder and head promoter of it. It is an event promotion that promotes positivity throughout the nerd community, as well as the culture that its apart of. We kick off our debut event on March 30th next year, and hope to bring BASSMODE events to conventions. I also see this promotion as a way to help DJs gain experience playing in front of crowds, because I’ve noticed that a lot of them became ‘Bedroom DJs’ during the pandemic. (I did too!)
Like I said before, I’m still cautiously optimistic about the future of D&A, but I believe we’re taking steps in the right direction in terms of our growth, and connections we’ve made along the way. Never would I thought that in the 7-going-on-8 years we’ve been active, that we would reach this point with D&A. With enough time, patience, and grinding, we can be one of the best anime blog/multimedia brands out there. For me, if you have a dream and a passion to do something, don’t sit at the window and think about it – DO IT! We never thought we’d get this far, but we kept at it. I don’t know what the next few years are going to be like when it comes to this project, but we’re making great progress, and that’s all that matters to me now.
Wow…if you haven’t heard the news, this one’s gonna hit you hard if you’re an anime fan. Breaking around 11am this morning from Anime News Network, RightStuf has been acquired by Crunchyroll, and thus will now close down on October 10th, 2023. There’s more information coming out about it, but if you’re looking for the brunt of it, we have the link from ANN themselves down below. We kinda weren’t really expecting this, but with how large Crunchyroll has gotten since being bought by Sony, this was going to come eventually – just not this soon. We don’t know how the rest of the anime community is feeling, but for the time that we were affiliated with (and bought stuff from) RightStuf, those guys n’ gals were awesome. Farewell old friend, you will be missed…
We’re three-and-a-half weeks away from “spooky season”, so we’re proud to announce that the ‘Big Guy’ himself, D.J. Lewis, is making special occasional appearances on Youtube in an October special called “Nerdz of the Decade: Spooktober Edition”. Also during the month of October, we’ll be traveling to Pocono Mountains, PA for PuchiCon on October 21-22. If you live in PA and want to see us live, check out the convention and drop by to say ‘hi’. With that said, here are the days you’ll find both D&A founders on Youtube for the ‘Spooktober’ special:
October 4, 2023 – Nerdz of the Decade: Spooktober Edition Episode
October 13, 2023 – Nerdz of the Decade: PuchiCon 2023 Pre-Convention Special
October 18, 2023 – Nerdz of the Decade: Spooktober Edition Episode
October 25, 2023 – Nerdz of the Decade: PuchiCon 2023 Post-Convention Recap
It’ll be exciting to have both founders back on the road to anime conventions, as well as on Youtube! That will do it for this special announcement, so until next post, stay nerdy! 😉
Alright. So from last week’s post, you guys are aware that I made my return to our Youtube channel, as well as the blog itself. The only major change was that fact that I would only be posting occasionally, as well as making occasional appearances on Youtube. That’s great news, right? Well yes, and no. Since making my “seemingly” farewell post on March 31st; thanking all of our fans and followers for making D&A Anime Blog what it is, it left me with time to think about the future of this project. I don’t think I’ll ever grow bored or tired of anime, because if I did, this project would’ve ended a long time ago.
I think now in the seven (going on eight) years that we’ve been active in the anime community, as well as the convention circuit, there are functioning aspects about D&A that I fear will put us on the path to a slow death. I’m not trying to scare you guys into thinking that D&A won’t be able to function at 100% capacity, now that I’ve pulled back on consistency. However at this stage of the game I got to be honest; we really need help!
Yep…we need help.
Growing a business also comes with growing pains, and in our case, D&A is growing at a rate that we might not be able to keep up in the long term. So what exactly do we need help with? Well, I’m gonna tell you.
#1. Writers and Contributors
Since stepping away, the rate of content that we produce for the blog has declined over recent months. At the time, I was the only writer producing articles and reviews just to keep the consistent flow of content going. However it was only accelerating my burnout, which in turn led to making a post about needing more writers and contributors to help produce content for us. From first glance I get that we ‘look’ like a high profile article print/publishing company, but that’s only on the outside. We are nothing but a staff of two guys who really love anime, Japanese culture, Marvel, and DC comics, and want to talk about it whenever we want. Our only problem now is the fact that for many writers, you have to pay them. (They do a lot of work, so they should be paid.) Which leads us into our second biggest issue.
#2. Revenue
There are so many ways you can make money as a blogger despite it being only passive income. We tried generating enough content and promotion to help land us 1,000 subs and 4,000 watch hours. (The subs we got, but the watch hours…not so much.) So we looked into other ways to try and make some revenue for this project, in order to cover operational costs and upgrades to on-site equipment for press coverage of conventions. Recently we’ve finally opened up our own merch store and got a couple new affiliates to try and generate enough revenue to keep us operating, but that’s just it – it’s only enough to keep us operating.
We want to make more revenue to provide compensation for our writers and contributors as a way to thank them, plus there are some other projects that we want to work on to help expand our brand’s presence within the community, and to other conventions everywhere. We’re really limited in the things we want to do, so if you guys want to see more quality content (and even exclusive content), you can send us a donation on the D&A Donations page, or by so merch from our store. Every little bit helps.
#3. Convention Content
Cons are expensive, there’s no other way I can say it. Because of the pandemic, a lot of our local cons have either dissolved or moved to other states. The average con goer is probably looking at $750-$1000 at best to go to a 3-day convention in 2023; depending where that convention is located, the hotel that they’re staying in, badge cost, etc. Its gotten harder for us to try and provide convention content for you guys due to the rise of prices, and lack of revenue. So we’ve been working on trying to get guest bookings in hopes of elevating half, or all of the cost of getting to these conventions. This will not only help us produce more convention content, but also expand our brand as a whole.
To close this out; D&A has become something special to both me and Aaron, and although many people have stated that we have so much potential, we’re also in dire need of help to reach our full potential. So if you’re out there and you like blogging about nerdy stuff, or want to become a part of our project, subscribe to our blog and social media platforms, and even send us a donation or by some merch.
Fans, we know you’ve been waiting, and you’re gonna get your fill! We’ve made the announcement on our social media pages, but now we’re gonna let you know right here on the blog itself; we have our own MERCH STORE!! Now you can become a part of us by buying official merch from the D&A Merch Store; the official merchandise store of D&A Anime Blog, and D&A Studios Entertainment! T-shirts and coffee mugs won’t be the only type of merch available, as new merch will be hitting our digital store shelves in the coming weeks! Click on our unified brand logo below, and check out what we’ve got in our store. That’s our announcement for now, until next post, stay nerdy my friends! 😉
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